a proper, but the Sawtis, an
anti-clerical sect, are found in some numbers in the Shan States and
similar communities called Man are still met with in Pegu and
Tenasserim, though said to be disappearing. Both refuse to recognize
the Sangha, monasteries or temples and perform their devotions in the
open fields. Otherwise their mode of thought is Buddhist, for they
hold that every man can work out his own salvation by conquering
Mara,[184] as the Buddha did, and they use the ordinary formulae of
worship, except that they omit all expressions of reverence to the
Sangha. The orthodox Sangha is divided into two schools known as
Mahagandi and Sulagandi. The former are the moderate easy-going
majority who maintain a decent discipline but undeniably deviate
somewhat from the letter of the Vinaya. The latter are a strict and
somewhat militant Puritan minority who protest against such
concessions to the flesh. They insist for instance that a monk should
eat out of his begging bowl exactly as it is at the end of the morning
round and they forbid the use of silk robes, sunshades and sandals.
The Sulagandi also believe in free will and attach more value to the
intention than the action in estimating the value of good deeds,
whereas the Mahagandi accept good actions without enquiring into the
motive and believe that all deeds are the result of karma.

5

In Burma all the higher branches of architecture are almost
exclusively dedicated to religion. Except the Palace at Mandalay there
is hardly a native building of note which is not connected with a
shrine or monastery. Burmese architectural forms show most analogy
to those of Nepal and perhaps[185] both preserve what was once the
common style for wooden buildings in ancient India. In recent
centuries the Burmese have shown little inclination to build anything
that can be called a temple, that is a chamber containing images and
the paraphernalia of worship. The commonest form of religious edifice
is the dagoba or zedi:[186] images are placed in niches or shrines,
which shelter them, but only rarely, as on the platform of the Shwe
Dagon at Rangoon, assume the proportions of rooms. This does not apply
to the great temples of Pagan, built from about 1050 to 1200, but that
style was not continued and except the Arakan Pagoda at Mandalay has
perhaps no modern representative. Details of these buildings may be
found in the works of Forchhammer, Fergusson, de Beylie and various
archaeolog